Nejla Ates Profile

recovers from a torrid idyll with wrestler-turned-actor Richard Collins

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has an affair with muscle-man Gerrard Brix, one of the Brix Brothers, who appears on the same bill with her at the Casino

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becomes famous as “The Exquisite Turkish Delight”

c. 53

dances at the Latin Quarter in New York for Lou Walters. He has a rule that all his female performers, whether star dancer or chorine, have to wear pasties.

September 53

is reported having "left a trail of broken hearts from Istanbul to the Bronx, with way stops in Paris, Miami, and Las Vegas"

c. 7 September 53

meets Texas oil heir Sheppard William King III. He's 28; she's 21. The son of fabulously wealthy Mrs. Bonner King of Houston, King is a one-time Marine, who fought on Guadalcanal. He became a Moslem and changed his name to Abdullah Bey when he wed Egyptian belly dancer Samia Gamal, his second wife, in 1951 in Cairo.

10 September 53

in New York City King announces that his romance and marriage to Egyptian belly dancer Samia Gamal, is "all off" and that he will marry Nejla. He already gave her a three-and-a-half karat square-cut diamond ring and mink coat as a token of his esteem. In Cairo, Samia wishes King well in his new romance but is "burning with anger" over reports that King is auctioning off her harem dancing costumes in Texas.

Mid-September 53

columnist Walter Winchell reports: "What's the odds on a re-run of the Joe E. Lewis-Nejla Ates romance when he opens at the Copa on September 24? Lou Walters is holding over the Turkish tummy-tosser at the Latin Quarter long enough to make it possible - not because he's Cupid but because she's the most sensational show stopper he ever had..."

Winchell knows: "Sheppard King of Texas, who switched from Samia Gamal to Nejla Ates (another torso-tosser at the Latin Q.), was reported broke. He carries $30,000 in Travelers Checks..."

Early October 53

King says he wants to marry her at the United Nations, where there is a mosque and a sheik

Mid-October 53

King is reported to have switched to 19-year-old stripper Lily Lamont. "Nejla's real beau is a rich textile manufacturer, anyhow..."

17 October 53

breaks her engagement to King after five weeks when he announces in Washington D.C. his engagement to 19-year-old Helen Fiske Smith, "Miss Washington of 1953." King says his ex-fiancée was temperamental and had difficulty remembering his name. Nejla says through her manager, Mrs. Helen Franklin, that their engagement blew up because of King's "silly" behavior. She couldn't stand seeing him hauling his girlfriends around in her sea-green Buick convertible and plunk them down in the front rows in the nearby Maryland nightclub where she plays, advertised as "The exquisite Turkish delight introduced by Sheppard King." Her new interest is Steven Cochran, whom she dazzled in her Washington D. C., nightclub act.

November 53

she and Monique Van Vooren are Steve Cochran's dates in Manhattan

does sensational business at the Thunderbird in Las Vegas

December 53

she and singer Billy Daniels are heralded the hottest of the Las Vegas combinations

she and King battle with lawyers over some papers Sheppard says are signed

poses in the Nevada desert at Las Vegas. "A reported tangle with Texas oil heir Shep King doesn't seem to give her any unhappiness, either."

March 54

says her boyfriend, actor George Sanders, phoned her that he started divorce action against Zsa Zsa Gabor

4 November 54

debuts with Fanny on Broadway. Her co-stars are Enzio Piza and Walter Slezak. Broadway showman David Merrick orders a sculptor to create a life-size nude statue of her and has it installed in Poet’s Corner in Central Park late at night for publicity purposes

Winchell knows "that overgrown Caddy outside the Fanny stage door is for hip-grinder Nejla Ates. The owner is a Philly industrialist, who gave her a mink coat..."

is sued by King for some $2,000 "or so for some reason or other. She still refers to their onetime romance as a publicity stunt." King will divorce his third wife, Mona, in 1960, marry Edith Cook in 1970, and die at age 86 in 2002 in Madrid, Spain.

is engaged to Jimmy Dell of the hilarious Goofers act

April 55

a Florida sportsman names his horse Belly Ates for her

June 55

her stage door Johnny at Fanny is singer Johnny Alden

has a violent feud with Rose La Rose, who claims that Nejla's writhings in Fanny are the same one she employed in burlesque in New York a couple of seasons ago

July 55

her mother is reported due in New York from Turkey for a visit

August 55

is Gary Crosby's frequent date in Las Vegas

Mid-November 55

she and Jimmy Dell of the Goofers are expected to marry before the New Year

Early December 55

will marry Dell on her birthday, March 7

January 56

sits with Dell at the airport for two hours while he stops on his Paris-to-Las Vegas flight

February 56

Wilson reports that she wiggled her way to featured billing in Fanny

May 56

columnist Dorothy Kilgallen writes "Nejla Ates and Alan Dale, at the Concord, convinced observers that if Nejla is engaged to another fellow, Turkish engagements must be pretty informal"

busts up with Jimmy Dell but keeps the ring. "She also has one from Shep King of Texas. 'Shep's was bigger,' she says: "he had five cars; Jimmy only has three.'"

June 56

is reported merely dining at Chandlers with showman H. Prince

the Indonesian Embassy tries to kill a newspaper photo of her with visiting President Sukarno

July 56

opens at the Washington Casino Royale. Saudi-Arabian Prince Faisal Hegelan is the most enthusiastic ringsider. "Between shows Nej and Princie just sat staring at each other with far away looks in their eyes. They musta reminded each other of home, at that."

is at the Spindletop with her new protegé, Farok Aulpkurt, famed Turkish caricaturist

is in Pittsburgh with Fanny but pining to work in Paris for more loot. "But she's a draw on the road - and she has a contract..."

September 57

columnist Harrison Carroll reports: "Turkish dancer Nejla Ates confirmed at Ciro's that she's in love again - with 26-year-old Curtis Nolen of Wichita Falls, Texas, whom she says is an oil heir. The petite dancer says she may open at Ciro's for H. D. Hoover."

Winchell writes that Nolen "really adores her and wants to give her the respectability of meddidge..."

August 58

is out of circulation due to a bad cold. "When she recovers she'll add her bare midriff to the Vegas parade at El Rancho..."

Early February 59

meets Ted Jordan, estranged husband of stripper Lili St. Cyr

Late February 59

Jordan is expected to fly down to Mexico to marry her when Lili picks up that Reno divorce. Columnist Harrison Carroll reports that romance is blooming, however, when they give him a call from the Bantam Cock restaurant. Jordayn says: "Nejla is going to Mexico City for a dancing engagement. I plan to fly down to see her. Don't be surprised if we got married."

July 59

Wilson tells that friends are inquiring about her, who failed to show up for a job in Mexico City

August 59

is back in New York after a South American tour

October 60

will figure in the divorce case tossed by stripper Hope Diamond against her husband, crooner Bobby Colt. "This should be one for the lighter newspaper pages..."

November 60

Winchell thinks she "and Colt threaten to wed"

19 December 60

begins her first hotel engagement in Miami Beach at the Seville

5 April 61

Hope Diamond wins a legal separation from her husband in New York on grounds that he deserted her for Nejla. Hope Diamond and Bobby Colt have a one-year-old son.

13 May 61

is rushed to Grand Central Hospital in New York City after taking an overdose of tranquilizers and aspirin. The police are called to her apartment at 140 East 56th Street by singer Bobby Colt. Colt says she took an overdose after they quarreled because he wanted to read and she wanted to talk. Her condition is reported fair. Afterwards, she'll say: "I'm fed up with life... with love... with everything."

January 62

is reported recuperating after straining some muscles doing the twist

February 62

she and Colt are reported having broken their three-year engagement

September 62

Wilson reports her visiting her boyfriend Colt in the hospital

c. early January 63

marries producer Francis Elwood Semone. They celebrate at the Rembrandt Room at the Stanhope. He's 48; she's about 30.

11 March 64

Wilson tells that she "divorced a business chap and is recirculating..." Semone will die at age 65 in 1979 in Sacramento.

September 64

her ex-sweetheart Colt is reported "managing her (platonically)..."

Early April 65

is hospitalized in New York with a slipped disc. Singer Billy Daniels and Nai Bonet visit her at the hospital.

Mid-April 65

out of the hospital, she is noted ringsiding at the Taft to cheer the Billy Daniels and Nai Bonet show. She has a big medical collar around her neck.

10 October 65

suffering from an apparent overdose of barbiturates, she is found unconscious in her apartment and taken to Bellevue Hospital, New York, where she falls into a coma and is listed in critical condition. It is the second time in four years that she is hospitalized because of an overdose of pills. Friends say she was despondent because she could not get regular work.

End October 65

Winchell tells that she "was generous with her money when she first clicked big here. Many wealthy males wooed her, but she usually preferred handsome youngsters, who let her pick up the big tabs. Now where are they when she needs help?"

November 65

flies off to Turkey on the same plane as Billy Graham, who compliments her on her beauty. "Neijla thanks to donations after her illness, and had $500 worth of excess baggage - which she whittled to $196."

April 66

Winchell tells that "pals over here are happy about Nejla Ates' triumphs in her native Istanbul. Last year the many heartaches almost killed her."

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during rehearsal for her show, she meets Özer Baysaling, a law school student, who also works as an acrobat at the Casablanca nightclub in Istanbul. He’s 23; she’s 37.

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declares her love for Baysaling during a tour to Konya, Central Anatolia

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she and Baysaling reside in a single-room shack without a window in an Istanbul suburb. Nejla has two Pekingese dogs, gifts from Jeff Chandler.

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attempts suicide again

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marries Baysaling in Turkey

October 73

Wilson reports her being a 200-pound blonde, hiding in Istanbul, depressed over an unhappy marriage and a new romance that can't work because she's evidently still married. "She sent an appeal via Joey Adams to the husband believed to be living in America, to 'Please release me.'"

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she and Baysaling visit the States on an invitation by Arnold Schwarzenegger